In a Singapore where dialects have been losing relevance for generations, Grandmother Tongue traces a young man’s struggle to connect with his 84-year-old Teochew-speaking grandmother. He teaches her to use a mobile phone. He helps her buy her favourite brand of soya sauce. He visits her in hospital after a fall. Along the way, he begins to understand just what it means to spend decades in linguistic and cultural exile.
Inspired by Kuo Pao Kun’s seminal Mama Looking For Her Cat, Thomas Lim’s funny, insightful play examines the social costs of our mother-tongue language policy and the erasure of dialects in today’s Singapore. In ways both humorous and heartbreaking, Grandmother Tongue explores how our identities are bound up with the languages that we use and the ones that we lose.
Performed in English and Teochew, with English surtitles. Grandmother Tongue was presented by W!LD RICE and premiered at the Singapore Theatre Festival 2016.
2016 SINGAPORE THEATRE FESTIVAL
W!LD RICE proudly presents the 2016 Singapore Theatre Festival, a thrilling theatrical event about a nation on the edge and the people who live, love and dream in it. At a time when Singapore is poised between its storied past and the uncertain future, dive into the eight hilarious, heartbreaking, witty and whimsical works that make up the Festival.
From the disarmingly intimate to the startlingly epic, these plays will open your eyes, touch your hearts and blow your minds. For four exhilarating weeks, come and be a part of this thought-provoking season of new and original Singaporean writing!
ABOUT THE SINGAPORE THEATRE FESTIVAL
Established in 2006, the Singapore Theatre Festival is an event dedicated to celebrating contemporary Singaporean theatre. Hailed as “the main event in the world of the arts” (The Straits Times, 2006) and the “Blockbuster Event of the Year” (TODAY, 2008), the Festival aims to provide a creative, nurturing and optimistic environment for the development of new and original plays. Since 2006, the Festival has produced 16 World Premieres of new Singapore writing.
To add to the FEST!VITIES, a series of exciting activities have been planned to give audiences the opportunity to delve deeper into the themes and inspirations of the Festival. These include the ART & LIFE SESSIONS, a series of free forums about the urgent issues of the day; and THE FEST!VAL CLUB, where audiences and artists can unwind while discovering new talents in stand-up comedy and musical theatre.
To find out more about the Festival, please visit www.singaporetheatrefestival.com.
